A color filter is used in, for example, a color face plate for CRT display, a photoelectric element plate for copying, a filter for single tube type TV cameras, a flat panel display using liquid crystals, and a color solid-state image sensor.
Generally employed color filters comprise regularly arranged three primary colors, i.e., blue, green and red. Color filters comprising four or more hues are also available for some uses. For example, color filters for camera tubes or for liquid crystal displays are required to have a black pattern for various purposes.
Known processes for producing these color filters include vacuum evaporation, dyeing, printing, pigment dispersion, electrodeposition, and resist electrodeposition transfer. However, color filters obtained by these processes have their several disadvantages, such as involvement of a complicated step, liability to pinholes or scratches, poor yield, and insufficient precision.
In order to solve these defects, methods for producing a color filter by an external development using a silver halide color light-sensitive material (for example, JP-A-55-6342 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")) or by an internal development (for example, JP-A-62-148952, JP-A-62-71950) has been investigated. However, in the former method, the color development must be conducted at least three times so that the process is not simple. The latter method is advantageous in that a micro color filter having blue, green and red color parts having excellent spectral transmission characteristics and a black part having an optical density higher than those in the color filter parts can be easily obtained as compared with a conventional case where yellow, magenta and cyan couplers are used one by one in respective silver halide emulsion layers. However, even in this method, when blue, green and red color parts are intended to have a high spectral transmittance and an excellent color hue, since the black part has a low optical density, the light-shielding property is insufficient or the equivalent neutral density (END) is largely dislocated and, as a result, an improvement is needed.